The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for data de-duplication in a service oriented architecture and Web services environment.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for different purposes. SOA design principles are used during the phases of systems development and integration.
SOA generally provides a way for consumers of services, such as web-based applications, to be aware of available SOA-based services. For example, several disparate departments within a company may develop and deploy SOA services in different implementation languages; their respective clients will benefit from a well-defined interface to access them. Extensible markup language (XML) is often used for interfacing with SOA services, though this is not required. SOA defines how to integrate widely disparate applications for a Web-based environment and uses multiple implementation platforms. Rather than defining an application programming interface (API), SOA defines the interface in terms of protocols and functionality. An endpoint is the entry point for such a SOA implementation.
Service-orientation requires loose coupling of services with operating systems and other technologies that underlie applications. SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services, which developers make accessible over a network in order to allow users to combine and reuse them in the production of applications. These services and their corresponding consumers communicate with each other by passing data in a well-defined, shared format, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services.
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web services in computer networks. SOAP relies on XML for its message format, and usually relies on other application layer protocols, most notably Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), for message negotiation and transmission.
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the Internet. A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. A Web service has an interface described in a machine readable format, such as Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.